Chicago Cubs vs. Milwaukee Brewers preview, Friday 4/6, 7:10 CT

If this seems like a long road trip, it is, even though Tuesday’s rainout shortened it from 10 to nine games.

It’s the first Cubs season to begin with a three-city trip since 2000 when they started off with a pair of games against the New York Mets in Tokyo, Japan followed by three-game sets in St. Louis and Cincinnati.

Limiting things to North America, the Cubs have started a season with a three-city North American trip for the first time since 1988 (two games in Atlanta, three games in Montreal, three games in St. Louis).

But the Cubs have been road warriors since the start of the 2015 season. They lead the major leagues in that time span with 141 victories and a .569 road winning percentage (141-107).

Now let’s keep up that road winning tonight!

About last night:

Best wishes for a speedy recovery for Corey Knebel.

Here are today’s particulars.

The Cubs released this lineup early this afternoon:

But then this happened. Here’s the new lineup:

Brewers lineup:

Kyle Hendricks, RHP vs. Brandon Woodruff, RHP

Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports

Orlando Ramirez-USA TODAY Sports

Kyle Hendricks’ 2018 season is off to a good start, though he’d probably tell you he’s not happy that he walked three in an otherwise good, six-inning, one-run start against the Marlins.

Kyle faced the Brewers five times last year. Overall: 4.18 ERA, 1.250 WHIP, skewed by two not-so-great outings early in 2017 when he was being bothered by the finger injury that eventually sent him to the DL. After the ASB vs. Milwaukee: three starts, 17 innings, 2.65 ERA, three walks, 17 strikeouts.

Current Brewers are hitting .193 (28-for-145) against Hendricks with four home runs, two by Travis Shaw.

Brandon Woodruff is making his first start of 2018 after a pair of relief appearances. He made eight starts last year, one of which was against the Cubs on September 22, where he allowed five hits, three walks and four runs in five innings.

Woodruff’s arsenal is pretty standard: fastball, slider, changeup. He typically throws the fastball about 60 percent of the time, according to Fangraphs.

His last relief appearance was on Monday, when he threw 21 pitches.

Today’s game is on NBC Sports Chicago Plus.

Here is the complete MLB.com Mediacenter for today.

MLB.com Gameday

Baseball-reference.com game preview

SB Nation game preview

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The 2018 Game Thread procedure will be the same as the one used during 2017. Here's how it works.

You'll find the game preview posted separately on the front page, two hours before game time (90 minutes for some early day games following night games).

At the same time, a StoryStream containing the preview will also post on the front page. The First Pitch Thread and all the overflow threads will be published in that stream, as well as the recap. The recap will also live on the front page as a separate post, and at the time I write the recap I will rename the stream "Cubs vs. (Team) (Day of Week) Game Threads" so you can go back and find every thread related to that particular game.

You will also be able to find the preview, First Pitch Thread, all the overflow threads and recap in the box marked "Chicago Cubs Game Threads" at the bottom of the front page (you can also find them in this section link). They will also appear in the game's StoryStream as noted above.

The First Pitch thread will post at five minutes before game time, then an overflow thread at one hour, two hours and 2:45 after the scheduled game time.

Discuss amongst yourselves.